18 



THE CUBA REVIEW. 



UNITED STATES NEWSPAPER COMMENT. 



The Elections — Opinions For and Against Annexation — The Wreck of the Mciine 

 — Prospects of Another Revolution, etc. 



Ninety Days Only. 



Not more than ninety days of independent 

 life as a republic before lanother necessary 

 intervention on the part of the United States 

 is the estimate made by some pessimistic 

 owners of Cuban property. Certain govern- 

 ment officers profess to think that the ar- 

 rangements whicli will be made for retaining 

 the whole body of our troops now in the 

 island at fortified posts will exercise a 

 restraining' influence, but it is plain that they 

 are none too sure of tlheir ground in making 

 the assertion. The mere overawing influence 

 of the trocrps might keep matters quiet for a 

 time, but it would not be very long, prob- 

 ably, before the same influences which dic- 

 tated intervention on the present occasion 

 would be set at work. Some even think that 

 the presence of the troops by making inter- 

 vention easy and inexpensive would hasten 

 the event rather than retard it. — Journal of 

 Commerce, N. Y. 



Microbe of Revolt. 



Secretary Taft, who knows the Cuban 

 character intimately, said recently : 



"Medical men tell us that unless we 

 healthy men have a few score of deadly 

 microbes in our system we are in danger of 

 some dreadful illness or are facing a general 

 breakdown. Well, the same thing holds good 

 in Cuba. If Cuba did not have a few revo- 

 lutions hatching in its political incubator, 

 T'd begin to wonder what was the matter 

 with the island." — New York Times. 



Cuba Tired of Being Good. 



The United States is the big brother who 

 strives to keep the little one in order and 

 protect him for his own good. The little 

 one may be disposed to prefer his old-time 

 bonds, which, although they were irksome, 

 did not prevent an occasional effort to break 

 them. The liberty to do as he pleases even 

 if so doing causes him trouble, is dear to 

 the soul of the Cuban. It is probable that he 

 is just a little tired of being good. — Mobile 

 (Ala.) Register. 



Again the Wreck of the Maine. 



Why is the wreck there? It has been but 

 a little while since all the world was in- 

 terested in our strenuous endeavors to re- 

 cover the body of an American sailor and 

 bring it back to his native land. And yet, 

 John Paul Jones was decently interred in 

 France, while some three-score of our sailors 

 are rotting in the sewage of Havana Harbor, 

 -prisoners in the wreck of the Maine! We 

 know where these bodies are. We under- 

 stand that the expense of lifting their sep- 

 ulcher and carrying it out to the pure blue 

 waters of the sea would be trivial, but even 

 such a simple burial is denied those three- 

 score dead! — Newark (N. J.) News. 



Must Sustain Cuban Government. 



In the event of another outbreak the duty 

 of this government will be to sustain the 

 administration whidh it has helped to create 

 and to put it on its feet before abandoning 

 the island a second time. Then, after a fair 

 trial, if Cuba cannot stand alone, something 

 else must be done, and it is plain what that 

 something else must be. — San Antonio 

 (Tex.) Express. 



Has a Bear by the Tail. 



Cuba has three parties, and each prefers 

 government by the United States to tlae suc- 

 cess of the other two. In spite of the most 

 benevolent intentions Uncle Sam appears to 

 have a bear by the tail in his Cuban experi- 

 ences. — Newton (Mass.) Journal. 



President McKinley's Message. 



July 4, ten years ago, word was re- 

 ceived that Cervera's fleet had rushed 

 out of the Bay of Santiago, Cuba, and 

 had been destroyed. The news came af- 

 ter days of anxiety and when the coun- 

 try had begun to fear that the troops 

 before the city of Santiago might have 

 to be withdrawn. 



It is worth while recalling on such a 

 day the solemn promise made by Mc- 

 Kinley to free Cuba, not to conquer it. 

 In his message to Congress he said: "I 

 speak not of forcible anexation (of 

 Cuba), for that cannot be thought of — 

 that by our code of morality would be 

 criminal aggression." — Baltimore (Md.) 

 News. 



Many Color Lines in Cuba. 



There are social distinctions in Cuba 

 based upon color. There is not one but 

 several color lines, though these are not ex- 

 ternal, hard, fast and unchangeable, as in 

 the United States. In Cuba social life is run 

 largely bv social clubs. There are in almost 

 every town and village negro clubs, two or 

 three grades of mulatto clubs and white 

 clubs. In one and at its functions may ap- 

 pear the husband, excluding the wife ; in an- 

 other, the wife, but not the husband ; in a 

 third, their children, but neither the father 

 nor mother. To the world this will appear 

 incredible, almost incomprehensible. Here it 

 is convention, fixed, settled, accepted and 

 operative. These distinctions, however, run 

 but for a lifetime. — Army and Navy Life. 



The American army is well scattered over 

 the island, and while it consists of only 5,000 

 troops it is distributed in such a way that 

 a fair-sized body of trained regulars could 

 be mobilized at any point in the island in a 

 few hours. — N. Y. Commercial. 



Colonial Cuba is perhaps the final answer 

 to the Cuban question. — Fort Worth (Tex.) 

 Star. 



